clonezilla-hd

Automates Clonezilla Live on hard drive from a USB stick. A laptop boots straight into Clonezilla from its own drive, keeps disk images on a separate partition, and runs Clonezilla's Lite Server to PXE-boot other computers and deploy images to them.

 USB stick (make-usb.sh)            laptop internal drive (after install)
 ┌──────────────────────────┐       ┌──────────┬───────────────────────────┐
 │ Clonezilla Live          │  ───► │ CZBOOT   │ CZIMAGES                  │
 │ + "Install Clonezilla to │       │ 2 GiB    │ rest of the drive, ext4   │
 │   this computer's HARD   │       │ FAT32/EFI│ = /home/partimag          │
 │   DRIVE" boot entry      │       │ /live    │   (your images)           │
 └──────────────────────────┘       └──────────┴───────────────────────────┘

What the installer does

These are the steps from clonezilla.org/livehd.php, scripted:

1. Picks the internal drive. USB drives and the installer stick are never offered. If there's more than one internal drive, it asks which one.
2. Partitions it (GPT):
   • CZBOOT: a 2 GiB FAT32 EFI partition holding Clonezilla Live in /live. livehd.php renames it to /live-hd, but Lite Server only works with /live, so keep other Clonezilla USB sticks unplugged when you boot the laptop.
   • CZIMAGES: ext4, the rest of the drive, for images.
3. Rewrites Clonezilla's boot menus for the hard drive:
   • adds ocs_repository="dev:///LABEL=CZIMAGES", so the images partition is already mounted as /home/partimag when Clonezilla starts.
   • adds a Clonezilla Lite Server (PXE-boot other computers) entry.
   • presets language and keyboard so Clonezilla doesn't ask on every boot.
4. Installs both boot loaders. UEFI uses Clonezilla's own signed shim and GRUB, so Secure Boot works. Legacy BIOS uses syslinux with the GPT MBR. On UEFI machines it also adds a "Clonezilla (hard drive)" boot entry.
5. Reboots into Clonezilla from the hard drive.

Run it again on a drive that already has this layout and it upgrades instead: it replaces Clonezilla on CZBOOT and keeps your images on CZIMAGES. You can also choose to wipe the drive and start over.

1. Make the USB stick (on any Linux PC)

git clone https://github.com/CopesaCola/clonezilla-hd.git
cd clonezilla-hd
lsblk -d -o NAME,SIZE,TRAN,MODEL           # find the USB stick, e.g. /dev/sdb
sudo ./make-usb.sh /dev/sdb

The script downloads the latest stable Clonezilla Live (checksum verified), writes it to the stick, and adds the installer boot entry. To build a .img to flash with Rufus or balenaEtcher instead, give it a filename: sudo ./make-usb.sh clonezilla-hd-installer.img.

Option	Default
--auto	off	the installer is the default boot entry (5 s) and skips its prompts: plug in, power on, walk away. It refuses to run if the computer has more than one internal drive.
--default lite-server	clonezilla	make the hard drive boot into Lite Server by default
--boot-size 4G	2G	size of the Clonezilla partition
--timeout 10	30	boot menu timeout on the hard drive, in seconds
--locale '' --keymap ''	en_US.UTF-8 / us	empty = Clonezilla asks at every boot
--clonezilla 3.3.3-37	latest	pin a version, or pass a zip URL or local zip file

Only have Windows?

1. Download the Clonezilla Live zip (amd64, stable) from clonezilla.org.
2. Format the USB stick as FAT32. Windows only offers FAT32 for sticks up to 32 GB; for a bigger stick, use Rufus with "Non bootable" and FAT32.
3. Extract the zip's contents to the root of the stick, so live\, EFI\ and utils\ sit directly on it.
4. On the stick, open utils\win64, right-click makeboot64.bat, choose Run as administrator and follow its prompts. Check that it names the USB stick's drive letter.
5. Copy this repo's czhd folder to the root of the stick. Don't edit the .sh files in Notepad: Windows line endings break them.
6. Boot the laptop from the stick. Choose Clonezilla live, pick your language and keyboard, then Enter_shell, then cmd.
7. Run sudo bash /run/live/medium/czhd/install-to-hd.sh.

The result is the same; you just don't get the extra boot entry or --auto.

2. Install onto the laptop

1. In the laptop's firmware settings, allow booting from USB.
2. Boot from the stick and pick Install Clonezilla to this computer's HARD DRIVE.
3. Confirm the drive by typing YES. Skipped with --auto.
4. When it says so, remove the stick. The laptop reboots into Clonezilla from its own drive.

3. Use it

The laptop's boot menu now offers:

• Clonezilla live: the normal wizard. Images are saved to and restored from CZIMAGES. At the repository question, pick "skip — use existing /home/partimag" if it's asked at all.

• Clonezilla Lite Server: PXE-boots other computers and restores an image from CZIMAGES onto them, one at a time or many at once by multicast.

  1. Connect the laptop and the clients to the same wired network or switch.
  2. Pick the Lite Server entry, then choose the image repository (the CZIMAGES partition, on the laptop's drive). It also asks whether to use an existing DHCP server or start its own: choose "start new" only on an isolated switch with no router.
  3. Set the clients to network/PXE boot. Secure Boot can stay on: Lite Server normally offers UEFI clients an unsigned boot loader, so this entry swaps in Clonezilla's signed shim and GRUB (czhd/lite-server-helper.sh, log in /tmp/czhd-lite-server.log). Signed network boot works best when Lite Server starts its own DHCP on an isolated switch.
  4. Multicast runs in full-duplex mode (the wizard's -x option) by default, which is faster with several clients. It needs a switch, not an old network hub.
  5. Waits are shortened: the clients' boot menu starts the restore after 2 s (Lite Server default 7 s), and in "time to wait" mode multicast waits 10 s before each partition after the first (default 30 s). Both are set at the top of czhd/lite-server-helper.sh. Choosing clients-to-wait in the wizard skips the per-partition wait entirely: each partition starts as soon as every client is ready.

• Import images from a USB drive: copies premade Clonezilla images from a USB drive onto CZIMAGES, then checks they're restorable.

  1. Pick the entry, plug in the drive when asked, and press Enter.
  2. Choose which of the listed images to copy (or all).

  The drive is mounted read-only. Images are found up to 3 folders deep, spaces in names become _, and a half-finished copy never shows up as an image. From a Clonezilla shell you can also run sudo bash /run/live/medium/czhd/import-images.sh [/dev/sdXN].

• Capturing new images: Lite Server only sends images out. To capture a machine's disk, either:

  • connect that disk to the laptop (USB enclosure or dock) and use Clonezilla live → device-image → savedisk, or
  • save on the client with the regular stick, then copy the image folder to the laptop's /home/partimag.

Notes and limits

• x86-64 only, as is Clonezilla's amd64 build.
• Keep other Clonezilla USB sticks unplugged when you boot the laptop. On UEFI, Clonezilla's GRUB finds its menu by looking for a marker file that every Clonezilla stick also has.
• install-to-hd.sh writes a log to /tmp/czhd-install.log. If anything fails it shows the error and drops you to a shell.
• Advanced/testing: CZHD_DISK=/dev/nvme0n1 forces the target drive; CZHD_NO_REBOOT=1 skips the final reboot.

Development

shellcheck -x make-usb.sh czhd/*.sh

File	Runs on	Purpose
make-usb.sh	any Linux PC	builds the installer USB stick (or .img)
czhd/install-to-hd.sh	the laptop, inside Clonezilla Live	partitions the drive and installs Clonezilla
czhd/import-images.sh	the laptop, inside Clonezilla Live	copies premade images from a USB drive onto CZIMAGES
czhd/lite-server-helper.sh	the laptop, inside Clonezilla Live	fixes Lite Server's client boot files (signed UEFI loader, no laptop-only settings)
czhd/menu-lib.sh	both	edits Clonezilla's syslinux and GRUB menus